Icons of the West

My passion for the Wild West of America has come into being about twenty five years ago. I often listened to old country records, especially of the legendary outlaw movement with a.o. Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings, who appealed to me.
A logical result of this was, that I was found on my first ranch in Nevada in 2002.
The expense, the emptiness, the large nothing, the endless roads, which has been sung by all, they all were there.
What astonished me most, everything was like in a Western film: authentic clothes, bunkhouses, teepees, quarter horses, fantastic boots and “hats” , which are so important for the typical Western silhouette in the images, bought by the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden and private persons at home and abroad.

Havana Moon

I still have a vivid recollection of the boxing match between Felix Savon and my compatriot Arnold Vanderleyde. Vanderleyde is losing. It is 1992 and on TV I am watching the Olympic Games of that year.
Who are those Cubans? They dominate the boxing world for a considerable time. A little is known about them in the passably isolated Cuba of those days.
The images of Cuba I had, especially were those of the revolution, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and old American cars. For the first time I visit Cuba in 1997. My plan is clear. With an Olympus O.M 4 camera I start my search trip for Cuban boxing schools. What I find is Spartan, but divinely beautiful in my eyes.
Some years later, again I shoot a series, titled “Kid Chocolate”. This was purchased by Wim van Krimpen, at the time manager of the “Gemeentemuseum den Haag”

Pretty Things

How are you going to mention a pile of your images shot over the years?
When I watched them, that certainly were the pictures of a woman, photographed somewhere on location or in a studio. Prettythings especially shows beauty, tension and sex appeal with room for suggestion.
The woman: strong, powerful and put up a pedestal in a definite setting with an idea.
Sometimes with an idea that is changing little by little and surprises therefore. Often is permitting things to happen much more exciting. BlondBitch and PregnantSweetheart are such examples. These images have been purchased by the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden.

Gather

Every journey begins with a first step. Gather is an anthology of spots, I passed by or I wanted to go to.
Funny meetings with passing travellers, ruined small towns, nowhere nobody to be seen and cheap motels.
The profit of a photographer is that he can take photographs. Simply subjects, you watch then.

With kind regards, Henk.